History Main / SafetyInMuggles

* Diacon Frost uses this method to converse with Blade in {{Film/Blade}}, the first one. He even hangs lampshades by pointing out several children playing in the park nearby. Even more audacious is that he is a vampire, talking to a vampire hunter, in broad daylight.[[/folder]]

* Diacon Frost uses this method to converse with Blade in ''Film/Blade'', the first one. He even hangs lampshades by pointing out several children playing in the park nearby. Even more audacious is that he is a vampire, talking to a vampire hunter, in broad daylight.[[/folder]]

* Diacon Frost uses this method to converse with Blade in ''Film/Blade'', the first one. He even hangs lampshades by pointing out several children playing in the park nearby. Even more audacious is that he is a vampire, talking to a vampire hunter, in broad daylight.

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''TheElenium'': Sparhawk encounters Martel ... in Arasham's tent, while Sparhawk is pretending to be an emissary to Arasham. Both Sparhawk and Martel really ''want'' to start fighting, but neither feels like being torn to bits by a horde of fanatic Rendors.
* A common tactic in TheDresdenFiles. While supernatural nasties are generally willing to be seen by ordinary people, even the strongest will usually split when they hear police sirens. Also subverted when a White Court vampire tries to get Dresden to back down by invoking this and Dresden points out that he's in the phone book under Wizard and the publicity would do great things for his buisness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Film - Live Action ]]

* At one point during film/TheSaint, Simon Templar escapes the Russian gangsters who are chasing him simply by entering a crowded shopping center. He doesn't hide, doesn't run... he just surrounds himself by witnesses.

[[folder: Film - Animated ]]

* ''Disney/LiloAndStitch.'' Jumba can't open fire on Stitch because of his close company with Lilo. He enjoys reminding Stitch of it though, when he revealed the handle of his plasma weapon from inside a paper sack.
** This is actually because Cobra Bubbles once convinced some aliens that humans should be protected (he claimed that mosquitos are an endangered species, and that humans are their primary food source).

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''TheElenium'': Sparhawk encounters Martel ... in Arasham's tent, while Sparhawk is pretending to be an emissary to Arasham. Both Sparhawk and Martel really ''want'' to start fighting, but neither feels like being torn to bits by a horde of fanatic Rendors.
* A common tactic in TheDresdenFiles. While supernatural nasties are generally willing to be seen by ordinary people, even the strongest will usually split when they hear police sirens. Also subverted when a White Court vampire tries to get Dresden to back down by invoking this and Dresden points out that he's in the phone book under Wizard and the publicity would do great things for his buisness.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action Tv ]]

[[folder: Tabletop RPG ]]

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'', {{Ravenloft}} module ''Death Ascendant''. While the religious service in the temple is going on the Kargat members take aside worshippers one at a time and drain them of their life force. When they try to do this to a {{PC}}, if the {{PC}} protests the Kargat member backs off because they don't want to make a scene.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Used regularly in "Series/Chuck" when villains enter the buy more.

* ''Series/Supernatural'': Dean confronts Dick Roman, who is secretly the leader of the [[EldritchAbomination Leviathans]], in public, with dozens of witnesses, and challenges him to kill him. Dick has one simple rule for the Leviathans - don't make the news - and a very harsh penalty for failure. Dick can't just kill him without drawing tons of attention to himself and by proxy the Leviathans.

Characters who seek Safety In Muggles manage to avoid being harmed, captured or killed because their pursuer is unwilling to break TheMasquerade in front of a large number of {{Muggle}} witnesses. This can swing in a villain or hero's favor, turning a sure win into a stalemate, or possibly even a win for whoever can manipulate the crowd of bystanders to unwittingly helping their cause. Even causing a scene to get themselves (or their pursuer) arrested can count, since being under the custody of muggle law enforcement (incompetent or corrupt as it may be) can deter immediate harm.

Of course, characters attempting to do this run the risk of the pursuer deciding to use conventional means to separate them from the crowd (like posing as a "common" kidnapper or using a gun instead of a LaserSword) or eschewing collateral damage / breaching the masquerade and trusting people's WeirdnessCensor to convince them it was something mundane after the fact (if they even care).

The use of this trope becomes especially {{Iron|y}}ic if the one being saved doesn't care about upholding the masquerade.

Contrast KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade. Compare DidMomJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu and HumanShield.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* ''Manga/SoulEater'' has a slight variation; Stein actually is trying to unmask Medusa as a witch, however since he doesn't have enough evidence he confronts her at a party so she can't kill him without revealing herself (right in front of [[TheGrimReaper Lord Death]] himself and in a room full of [[TheWitchHunter meisters]] and their {{Equippable All|y}}ies). [[spoiler: Unfortunatly she's already put her plan (to trap everyone attending the party while she frees an EldritchAbomination) into motion and just runs away.]]
* In ''Manga/DeathNote'' when going to meet the second Kira, Light/Kira invites a large group of friends to accompany him on the outing in case Ryuk is seen by the second Kira's shinigami and so give away his identity as Kira. The second Kira is able to spot him anyway but doesn't want to approach him with all those people around.

[[AC:{{Film}} - Live Action]]
* In the original and remake of ''Film/FrightNight'', Charlie and his girlfriend run into a crowded dance club hoping to {{Invoke|d Trope}} this trope and stop Jerry from killing them. It doesn't work since there are too many people to notice that his "loving kiss" of her neck is actually a HemoErotic KissOfTheVampire.

[[AC:{{Film}} - Animated]]
* ''Disney/LiloAndStitch.'' Jumba can't open fire on Stitch because of his close company with Lilo. He enjoys reminding Stitch of it though, when he revealed the handle of his plasma weapon from inside a paper sack.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* ''TheElenium'': Sparhawk encounters Martel ... in Arasham's tent, while Sparhawk is pretending to be an emissary to Arasham. Both Sparhawk and Martel really ''want'' to start fighting, but neither feels like being torn to bits by a horde of fanatic Rendors.

[[AC:LiveActionTv]]
* ''Series/GetSmart'': Max is doing battle with a KAOS agent in his apartment when his aunt and uncle, who don't know he's in the spy business, show up. Max makes the KAOS agent play along that they're business colleagues, and the KAOS agent takes the opportunity to just leave.
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', [[BadassNormal Xander]] pulled this off against [[BigBad Angelus]] whilst Buffy was hospitalised and vulnerable. Angelus backed down rather than have to go through the effort of killing a bunch of security guards and other bystanders to get to Buffy.
* In a first season episode of ''Series/BurnNotice'', Michael ducks out of a fight with an assassin dual-wielding knives by jumping in an elevator full of civilians.
* This happened often in ''HighlanderTheSeries''. The Immortals were usually very careful about conducting their fights in isolated areas without any witnesses. If any muggles showed up unexpectedly they would abort the fight and try another time. In one instance Methos goes so far as call the police in order to stop a fight between Duncan and another Immortal.

[[AC:TabletopRPG]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* In an episode of ''TheSpectacularSpiderman'', villain Tombstone not only refuses to attack Spidey as he helps him fight other villains, because he depends on good publicity to keep running his business. As soon as there is no one watching them, though...
** In the same cartoon, there are also scenes where an undisguised Spidey has to avoid attacking Eddie Brock, AKA Venom, because Eddie makes sure there are people watching.

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* In ''MageTheAscension'', mages suffer from an effect called "paradox" whenever they do anything that can't be explained away as coincidence. Paradox is bad enough when it's just supernaturals around to witness it, but it gets really bad if a {{Muggle}} sees something that's definitely magic. Therefore, mages of pretty much any faction tend to lay off the really heavy magic when there are civilians around.

* Used as a game mechanic in the AssassinsCreed series, but most obviously in the first: Altair's HighlyConspicuousUniform looks vaguely like those of the locally respected scholars, which his Templar enemies cannot publicly attack. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc-ClutaN_I Demonstrated at the end of this trailer]], though in-game it's more often used to enter a city unhindered.

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'', {{Ravenloft}} module ''Death Ascendant''. While the religious service in the temple is going on the Kargat members take aside worshippers one at a time and drain them of their life force. When they try to do this to a {{PC}}, if the {{PC}} protests the Kargat member backs off because they don't want to make a scene.

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Xander of all people pulled this off against [[BigBad Angelus]] whilst Buffy was hospitalised and vulnerable. Angelus backed down rather than have to go through the effort of killing a bunch of security guards and other bystanders to get to Buffy.

** In ''TransformersPrime'' especially, transforming in front of humans is something you just don't do. Any human that knows tends to wind up ''with'' the Autobots, as the Decepticons have no qualms about people being KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade. This is what allows Arcee to escape in the first episode... her Decepticon pursuers weren't willing to risk a giant robot battle in view of more humans than they could reasonably expect to kill without causing a scene.

* In ''Film/LicenseToKill'', after Bond "resigns" and escapes to the street, M stops a guard from shooting because they can't risk hitting a civilian.

* In the first ''Film/MenInBlack'' movie, K stops J's attempt to kill the bug villain because they are in public.

* ''GetSmart'': Max is doing battle with a KAOS agent in his apartment when his aunt and uncle, who don't know he's in the spy business, show up. Max makes the KAOS agent play along that they're business colleagues, and the KAOS agent takes the opportunity to just leave.

The use of this trope become especially {{Iron|y}}ic if the one being saved doesn't care about upholding the masquerade.

Characters who seek Safety In Muggles manage to avoid being harmed, captured or killed because their pursuer is unwilling to break TheMasquerade in front of a large number of {{Muggle}} witnesses. This can swing in a villain or hero's favor, turning a sure win into a stalemate, or possibly even a win for whoever can manipulate the crowd of bystanders to unwittingly helping their cause.